Snow forces Heathrow and Paris airports to drop flights

Passengers queue at for the check-in desks at a busy Heathrow airport in west London on Jan 19, 2013, after hundreds of flights were cancelled due to severe cold weather and snow. Passengers were forced to sleep on the floor at London's Heathrow Airport overnight, media said on Saturday, after heavy snow grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands of people stranded. -- PHOTO: AFP

LONDON (REUTERS) - London's Heathrow Airport cancelled a fifth of its flights, and airlines scrapped 40 per cent of their flights to Paris' main airports, as snow continued to blanket parts of Europe, with more forecast.

Heathrow, which is owned by Spain's Ferrovial, said the reduced schedule - amounting to around 250 fewer flights - would help it cope with the expected snowfall without making further cancellations.

"There is a high probability of around two to six centimetres of accumulating snow and low visibility at periods throughout the day," a Heathrow spokesman said.

"This will reduce the capacity of the airport and, without action, would cause significant disruption to passengers and flights."